Artists

HEW LOCKE

Hew Locke (1959, Edinburgh) lives and works in London. Locke moved to Guyana where he spent his formative years. Back in the UK he completed an MA in sculpture at the Royal College.  He first came to national notice with his ''Cardboard Palace' created in 2002 for Chisenhale Gallery.

Locke began to see the Royal Family, particularly the Queen's official portrait, as a vehicle through which he confronted and evaluated his experiences of growing up and his work began to develop a sense of a resulting cultural clash. Locke breaks down the image and then renders this famous face in his own terms, creating elaborate glitzy effigies with a hint of menace, out of modest materials such as plastic lizards, sequins, toy guns and silk flowers.

Locke has exhibited extensively around the UK, including Tate Britain as part of British Art Week, BAS6, The V&A Museum, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Rivington Place, The Bluecoat Gallery and The British Museum. Locke has recently been commissioned to make a permanent installation for The New Art Exchange, Nottingham.  In the US he has shown at The Luckman Gallery LA, The New York Museum of Art and Design, Atlanta Contemporary Arts and at The Brooklyn Museum.